But his face showed up clearly on CCTV images – and he was arrested two days later after being spotted by off-duty Det Con Lauren Holley.

Police branded the makeshift mask as “ridiculous” after Neil was handed a two-year jail sentence.

But this hapless thief is just one of many to don a ridiculous disguise...

1. Two would-be burglars were arrested in October 2009 after covering their faces by drawing on 'masks' with magic marker pens.

Matthew Allan McNelly, 23, and Joey Lee Miller, 20, were arrested last week after they tried to break into an apartment in Carroll, Iowa.

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2. Richard Espinoza, aka the Thong Bandit, was jailed in 2009 after his skimpy attempt at a mask turned out to be pretty pants.

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3. Staff at a New York bank were left stunned when a gun-wielding robber walked into the branch disguised as famous comic book character, The Incredible Hulk.

With a green Hulk ski mask covering his face, the robber demanded cash from the teller at the Northwest Savings Bank in the Hamburg district in January last year.

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4. The robber in this video was not only light-fingered but green-fingered too, when he duct-taped branches to his head and torso and turned himself into a human tree before demanding money from a bank in Manchester, New Hampshire.

However, despite leaves and twigs almost hiding the thief’s face, he was still identified from security camera footage.

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5. This strange thief tried to cover his entire face with duct tape, thinking he couldn’t possibly be identified after the crime. He probably never thought of how he was going to get it off though.

After trying to rob a liquor store in Ashland, Kentucky, he was chased and wrestled to the ground by staff. The police then arrived and set about peeling off all the tape, definitely a painful experience.

But then Kasey G. Kazee wouldn’t have enjoyed being charged with first-degree robbery either.

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6. One sweet-toothed robber from California smeared cookie dough all over his face in an attempt to conceal his identity while raiding a drive-thru. Unsurprisingly the robber was literally caught with his hand in the cookie jar!

7. Most people would plump for a balaclava but bizarrely this robber tried to carry out a raid whilst wearing a milk crate on his head.

Marty Simpson’s strange choice of headgear made it hard for him to demand money from the cashier in Georgia so he kept having to take it off. Hardly a successful disguise and it was no surprise he was soon tracked down.

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8. As identifying features go, your forehead is probably one of the last things that needs to be covered up when committing a crime.

This robber obviously didn’t realise that though, using a dish-cloth to cover only that part of his face. He was smart enough to eventually flee, but not before being caught in close up on the bank’s security camera.

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9. Covering your face with chocolate is a bizarre way to rob a restaurant but one thief chose this unusual disguise in Los Angeles.

It’s not known whether the confectionary was dark, white, or milk chocolate but there were appeals for the public to report anyone with a pudding smeared face to the police.

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10. Covering your face with Polyfilla may seem a really daft way to try and escape being recognised but for one robber in Pennsylvania, it worked. However, the stupid thief was eventually tracked down by his car details. Maybe he should have covered that in cement...